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A Knox County grand jury this week indicted a dozen people who investigators say were part of a
pill-trafficking ring that moved prescription drugs from Florida to Ohio.

The indictments include five people from Columbus and a Mount Vernon man who detectives think
organized the drug ring.

Knox County Prosecutor John Thatcher said the group moved more than 100,000 pills, including
Percocet, methadone and alprazolam. The pills would have sold for about $2 million on the street,
Thatcher said.

Thatcher said Terry Jacobs, 42, led the operation. Jacobs’ wife, Heather Jacobs, 36, also of
Mount Vernon, helped arrange travel for people moving the drugs between Ohio and Florida.

The indictments capped a five-month investigation into opiate and prescription-drug sales in
Knox County.

“Shutting down this operation is a significant step toward combating Ohio’s opioid addiction
epidemic that is plaguing even smaller, rural areas like Knox County,” Thatcher said.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said the Knox County investigation was large compared with
other investigations around the state.

“It’s a large number of people, it’s a large number of pills being seized,” he said.

The attorney general’s office has for the past few years been working to fight prescription-drug
abuse, he said, advocating for state laws to crack down on “pill mills” and taking medical licenses
from doctors who write prescriptions for opiates that end up being sold on the streets.

DeWine said the office is primarily focused now on heroin abuse.

The drug is typically cheaper and easier to get than prescription pills.

The attorney general’s office this month added two positions to help cities and counties come up
with programs to educate people about drug use and its potential downfalls, he said.

“The two drugs that are killing the most people (in Ohio) are heroin and prescription drugs,”
DeWine said. “That has to be your focus.”

The 12 who were indicted this week in Knox County are set to be arraigned on May 2.